The magicians tried to produce gnats using their magic arts, but they could not. And the gnats remained on man and beast.
Parallel translations
- WEB The magicians tried with their enchantments to produce lice, but they couldn’t. There were lice on man, and on animal.
- KJV And the magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not: so there were lice upon man, and upon beast.
- NKJV Now the magicians so worked with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not. So there were lice on man and beast.
- NASB The soothsayer priests tried with their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not; so there were gnats on every person and animal.
- NLT Pharaoh’s magicians tried to do the same thing with their secret arts, but this time they failed. And the gnats covered everyone, people and animals alike.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The magicians try but cannot reproduce the gnats. For the first time Egypt's powers fail completely.
Overview
The sorcerers attempt to imitate this plague and fail, marking a decisive limit to the counterfeit powers that had rivaled Moses. Their inability exposes the boundary of all opposition to God: it can go only so far before God's superiority is undeniable. This failure foreshadows the certain defeat of every power that sets itself against the Lord, whose authority none can finally withstand.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Exod 7:11But Pharaoh called the wise men and sorcerers and magicians of Egypt, and they also did the same things by their magic arts.
- Exod 9:11The magicians could not stand before Moses, because the boils had broken out on them and on all the Egyptians.
- Dan 5:8So all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the inscription or interpret it for him.
- Luke 10:18So He told them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
- Dan 4:7When the magicians, enchanters, astrologers, and diviners came in, I told them the dream, and they could not interpret it for me.
- Isa 19:12Where are your wise men now? Let them tell you and reveal what the LORD of Hosts has planned against Egypt.
- Isa 47:12–13So take your stand with your spells and with your many sorceries, with which you have wearied yourself from your youth. Perhaps you will succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror!
- Dan 2:10–11The astrologers answered the king, “No one on earth can do what the king requests! No king, however great and powerful, has ever asked anything like this of any magician, enchanter, or astrologer.
- 2 Tim 3:8–9Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth. They are depraved in mind and disqualified from the faith.
- Gen 41:8In the morning his spirit was troubled, so he summoned all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but no one could interpret them for him.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.
How Exodus 8:18 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.